


blood and water

by RaineyDay



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [21]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Illnesses, Medical Experimentation, Unethical Experimentation, Vomiting, but definitely there, not explicit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:00:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29747412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaineyDay/pseuds/RaineyDay
Summary: Febuwhump day 21: tortureSome worlds are less accepting of differences than others. Some worlds are more willing to be vicious than others.
Relationships: The Director | Lucretia & Taako
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138502
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> yeesh, this one is a lot folks. will be continued though so I assure you that it will get happier. they will be okay!!
> 
> also, more of an 'inspired by' again. i wouldn't call what happens to them torture, technically, but it's bad and along the same lines, so

"Taako!" Barry's voice came crackling through his stone of farspeech, sounding nervous- well more nervous than was just his natural state of nerves. It put Taako on alert instantly, though he didn't let it show in his body, making sure that he kept as relaxed as he had been moments before.

"Yeah, Barold?" He replied.

"You need to get back to the Starblaster, now," Barry said. "Is Lucretia still with you?"

"Yeah, she's here," Taako said, and Lucretia looked up curiously at the reference to herself.

"Magnus and Merle are on their way to you guys. They're closest to your position. But you both should come back here now."

Taako wanted to ask what was going on. Why Magnus and Merle were on their way, why they needed to get back to the ship. But he was stopped from asking by the realization that Barry didn't just sound nervous- he was scared. And also, pissed off.

Barry didn't tend to get all that angry all that often, which made it weird that he sounded so furious right now.

"Luce, we're leaving," Taako said, starting to gather his things together. Lucretia didn't hesitate, closing her notebook and standing.

As they started walking, Taako shifted his stone so that Lucretia could lean in and hear everything Barry was saying too, without broadcasting it to everyone in the area.

"What's the big deal, Barold?" Taako asked.

"You remember how somebody sliced into our records a few weeks back?" Barry asked. It was hardly necessary to ask. It would be difficult _not_ to remember that, given how concerned Davenport and Magnus had been over the breach in security. They'd acted quickly enough that all the hacker had gotten was some communications reports that were hardly confidential or important, and some medical records, which was more concerning but also not particularly useful. The worst someone could do with that would maybe be trying to sneak some peanuts into something to trigger an allergic reaction, but like, no big.

"Of course," Lucretia answered, before Taako could make any kind of sarcastic response.

"Well, so, it turns out that this plane is kind of, ah, horrifically ableist," Barry said. "Those medical records they took? They found out about your diagnoses- and Lup's, obviously, but she's already on the ship- and apparently think it's acceptable to abduct you and hold you against your will over it."

"Oh, fuck," Lucretia said, eyes wide. Taako put one arm around her shoulder to tug her down an alleyway. Probably better to take as many shortcuts back as possible, then.

Lucretia picked up on the unspoken thought immediately, following along without a word. She ducked her head and pulled up the hood of her dark cloak as they made their way down the alley. Taako did the same, while slipping off most of his jewelry and hiding it in his bag in an effort to be less noticeable.

His heart had started beating faster, but he wasn't too worried yet.

"So how immediate is this threat? Like, do they have any clue where we are?" Taako asked, quieter than he'd been speaking before.

"We're pretty sure they do, yeah. The only reason we even knew to warn you is because one of the university researchers found out and didn't think it was right. But there's a lot of people in on this apparently, and you guys were at the university library right?"

"Yup," Taako agreed, eyes scanning the crowd for any sign that they were being watched.

He must have rolled a shitty perception roll though, because he didn’t notice the people following them until they’d already slapped rags soaked in liquid over their mouths, and they were out before they could fight it.

-

When they shoved Lucretia back into the cell, Taako immediately moved to catch her and pull her to him. She was staggering before they'd pushed her, and it was clear that she'd fall without help.

She essentially collapsed into his lap, and Taako snarled at the guards' retreating forms, before doing his best to check her over for any fresh injuries, despite the fact that there wasn't much he'd be able to do if there were any.

He'd lost track of how long they'd been here after a few days. With no windows into their cell, it was hard to be certain how much time had passed

They were fed, but he had no way of determining the rate of feedings to time spent here.

He used the word 'cell' less for the aesthetic implications and more for the logical meaning, because it was a cell, no matter how relatively nice it looked.

They had beds to sleep on, books to read, food to eat- but they were trapped here. They could be taken at any time to be poked and prodded, injured and examined.

They were being watched, constantly, and no explanations that it was for their 'protection' would ever convince him that this was anything less than a prison.

“I’m fine,” Lucretia insisted, after a moment, raising her head to meet his eyes.

“What did they do?” Taako demanded.

He didn’t want to admit to it, but Lucretia’s appearance was frightening him. She looked unsteady on her feet and as if she’d drop from exhaustion any minute.

As unpleasant as the whole situation was, neither of them had come back like this before, and it worried him.

“They took some blood. I feel a bit faint, but I’ll be okay,” Lucretia insisted.

“If you say so,” Taako said, dubious.

Despite her insistence, Taako made sure to help her over to sit on her bed.

She’d been really weak lately, and Taako didn’t like it. She’d been feeling faint a lot, and Taako definitely blamed the blood drawing for that. They never took that much, really, but they did it so often that it couldn't be healthy.

Lucretia flopped onto her side and curled up in a ball when Taako laid her down, and he seethed.

"Ya know, we're not all a bunch of monsters! If you'd'a just fuckin' asked, we might have been cool with helping you out without the need for all this!" he shouted at the ceiling, knowing their captors would hear. "Could have avoided us murdering you that way!"

There was no response to his words, and he paced viciously, like a caged animal, trying to get some of the helpless rage out of his system.

From what he'd picked up since their arrival, their capture wasn't just because of their neurodivergencies. That was more of a convenient excuse. A group of natives to this plane had seemingly been looking for a good reason to experiment on any of them for a while, and the ableist societal norms gave them just such a reason to keep them in custody.

Apparently, disabled people on this plane had no medical rights, and therefore the two of them currently had no medical rights. And neither did Lup, so Taako was really hoping that the rest of the crew could convince her to stay on the Starblaster for the time being. He couldn't imagine that they would be having an easy time doing it; Lup wasn't going to want to stand by while he and Lucretia were in danger, anymore than he would feel comfortable with it if their positions had been reversed. But he really didn't want to think about Lup getting herself caught too.

The worst fucking part was the fact that it was so unnecessary- they really would have been okay with helping out if they'd have asked. So far, before today, nothing these people had done to them was even all that invasive or bad. If these idiots had just talked to them about it- of course they'd want to help them!

The natives were prone to some disease- and it was real bad. But they'd realized very quickly upon arrival that their crew was immune to it.

They'd known about that before all this. For gods' sake, Barry had been talking to Merle about the possibility of working with the natives to replicate their immunity in the larger population.

But no. Instead, these assholes had decided that kidnapping and non-consensual medical experiments were the way to go.

Taako heard Lucretia gag behind him, and startled, turning towards her in time to watch her lean over the edge of her bed and start vomiting. A flash of adrenaline shot through his system, and he was by her side with a trash bin in hand before he realized that he was moving.

She managed to sit up to take the bin, and Taako magicked the bile on the floor away with a grimace.

He sat beside her on the bed, careful not to jostle her, and rubbed her back as she puked a little longer.

Eventually, she laid back down on her side, saying, "Thanks," in a soft and croaky voice.

Taako patted her arm gently, and set the bin down beside her bed.

"What the fuck did you do to her?" he screamed, about ready to try and bang the door down with his fists alone.

Their captors had figured out some way to diminish their access to their magic, and it was making it more difficult to figure out an escape plan. Taako was a bit surprised he'd been able to even take care of Lucretia's mess a few minutes ago, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to do much more today.

Lucretia groaned softly and buried her head in her pillow, and Taako figured that he probably ought to shut up. His screaming wasn't getting a response and it was probably not helping Lucy feel any better.

Wasn't really making him feel all that better either, if he was being honest. Screaming rage could only be so much of a relief when the people you were screaming at didn't respond to it at all.

"Taako, please calm yourself so that we can enter," a voice buzzed through.

Taako bared his teeth, but sat on his bed to show that he was complying. It wouldn't do him any good to attack these fools without a plan and with Lucretia being so sick. He'd never get them both out of here that way. And they might be bringing something to help Lucretia, so he didn't want to risk delaying that.

The door opened after he sat, and a pair of orderlies entered the room, moving quickly towards Lucretia.

"Can you stand?" one asked, in that awful fucking baby voice some of them used when talking to them.

Lucretia nodded, and sat up. She immediately started wobbling in place a little, and she hadn't even stood yet.

The orderly who spoke glanced toward the other, who moved back into the hallway and brought back a wheelchair, setting it beside Lucretia's bed.

Taako watched everything they were doing very closely, hating the fact that they were taking her away already, but reminding himself that they weren't going to do anything to put their precious test subjects at too much risk. They were going to help her, he had to believe that, or he'd go crazy.

They helped Lucretia sit, and started to wheel her out.

"Where are you taking her?" Taako asked, unable to bear the what-if's any longer.

The orderly who'd spoken earlier waved the other on to keep pushing Lucretia out of the room, and then they came over to Taako.

"I'm sure you can tell that your friend isn't well," they said. The simpering voice made Taako seethe, and he wanted to spit a retort at them. Even the way they called Lucretia his friend felt wrong. She was his friend, yeah, technically, but the voice made it sound so childish and he hated it. He hated them.

"And who's fault is that?" Taako demanded, despite knowing that it wasn't a good idea.

"I don't know," the orderly said. "This shouldn't have happened. Nothing we did today should have had such a strong affect on her. We are taking her to an exam room to figure out what is wrong and to learn the extent of the damage. Does that reassure you?"

It very much did not. Actually, it worried him even more. He had been furious at the idea that they'd done something to Lucretia to make her sick, but the fact that they had no idea what was wrong was worse. If they'd done something purposeful, at least they'd probably be able to undo it.

As the orderly left the room, Taako found himself staring over at Lucretia's bed, praying she'd come back okay. He couldn't do this alone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Febuwhump day 28: "you have to let me go."

"You have to let me go!" Lup demanded, slamming her hands on the table. "I'm not leaving Taako and Lucretia on their own!"

"Lup, it's too dangerous for you to leave the ship right now," Barry pleaded. "I know you want to help them, but we can't lose you too."

"You can trust us to handle this," Magnus insisted. "We want them safe just as much as you do."

"Maggie, I do trust you. Of course I do. But I have the most offensive magic of any of us! I can help!" Lup insisted.

"Lup, we aren't even sure that they're really in this location," Davenport said, his face drawn and tired. "If we were certain that this is where they're being held, it would be different. But as is, this could be a trap, and the last thing we want is to hand them more of exactly what they're looking for."

Lup gave a frustrated, wordless growl, and they all knew that she understood their argument, no matter how little she wanted to.

"We'll get them back for you," Merle assured, raising his hand to pat Lup's side comfortingly.

When Lup finally nodded her agreement to the plan, Barry pulled her close and kissed her. He was so glad that she was letting them handle this. He couldn't stand the idea of losing her on top of everything.

He led Lup back to their room, kissing her intermittently in comfort.

Their room was usually more comforting than it was at the moment. It was their little sanctuary, where the rest of the universe disappeared. They loved their family, but their bedroom was special.

But right now, it felt incomplete.

They hadn't made anything official, per se, but not long ago, they'd started to talk between themselves about inviting Lucretia to join their relationship. And she had, in fact, spent a few nights with them before all of this had taken her away.

And now their bedroom felt wrong. They'd barely spent any time sharing this space with her and yet it still felt wrong because they knew that she was supposed to be here with them and instead she was suffering. And the breaking open of their sanctuary left no defense against their worry for her and for Taako. They had no escape from their fears.

They hadn't even spoken about it to the rest of the crew yet, aside from Taako, who Lup was physically incapable of keeping secrets from and therefore didn't count. The relationship had been so new and now the formative days of it had been stolen away from them. Their girlfriend and their brother had been stolen from them.

Technically, they hadn't even started calling Lucretia their girlfriend officially before all this had started, but the loss of her had driven the point home. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all.

Barry absolutely understood why this whole situation was driving Lup crazy. It infuriated him as well.

Their world had had its fair share of problems, but much of the structural inequality of their history had been worked through by the time Barry had been born. Things weren't perfect- those issues took time to get past, especially when so much of their population was made up of beings who lived for several centuries- but it was miles better than the state of affairs in many of the planes they'd traveled to on their journey.

And Barry felt helpless in the face of it, knowing that it was wrong but unable to fight back against the weight of a system so huge, especially when they only had a year in these places to begin with.

It wasn't a problem that he'd ever expected to have to deal with. All he wanted to do was get angry at everyone who judged a member of his family for whatever trait that plane scorned them for, but that wasn't going to be enough to actually fix anything.

And now, it had gone far beyond simple judgement and into actual danger, and he still couldn't do anything.

"We'll get them back," Barry murmured into Lup's neck, as they lay tangled together in bed.

"I know," Lup responded. "There's no question about that. The only question is how much we're going to be able to hurt the fuckers that did this in the process."

They were quiet for a moment, before Lup let out a shaky breath.

"What if we can't get them back this cycle? That's too long, Bar," she whispered.

"Then we'll just have to give them extra love when next cycle starts," Barry shrugged, even though the idea of not seeing either Taako or Lucretia until next cycle ached. He wanted them back _now_. But the important part to remember- the thing that they had to hold onto if they lost everything else- was that they would always get them back. Sooner or later, they would get their family back home.

-

They never liked to piss off the natives of any plane too much. Spending a cycle on edge and watching for attack at all times was exhausting, and it was risky. If they all died or the Starblaster took too much damage, then that was it.

But sometimes, it was unavoidable, and they had gotten very good at surviving when it was. Davenport was not unwilling to go to all out war to get their people back. He would just prefer to ensure that they had truly exhausted all peaceful possibilities before committing to that.

It wasn't exactly easy to think in terms of peaceful solutions when these people had stolen two of their own and were doing gods know what to them. It was made all the more difficult by the fact that everyone else on the ship was chomping at the bit to attack.

Davenport was furious himself as well, but peaceful negotiation tactics had been ingrained into him long before he started this journey, and he was doing his best to keep his feelings contained for the sake of his crew's safety.

If they could get Lucretia and Taako back without bloodshed, they would be in a much safer position for the rest of the cycle. And if they couldn't, then they could get their vengeance later.

They had allies on this plane still- that had proven by the warning Alyssa had gotten to them before Taako and Lucretia were taken. It hadn't been all that useful, in the end, but at least she had tried.

They needed to figure out where Taako and Lucretia were being held before they could do anything to help them. And simply storming random buildings wasn't going to be a tactic with a high chance of success. Especially because the scientists imprisoning them were smart enough to know better than to broadcast where they were being held.

Therefore, Davenport had insisted that they try to be subtle first, and his crew had done their best to listen, even though subtlety wasn’t his crew’s finest skill at the best of times.

He was proud of them for trying, anyway.

Barry had been chosen to speak to Alyssa, because he was best blend of non-threatening and friendly for a task of that kind.

He was also usually better at keeping his anger under control than some of the others, though Davenport _had_ noticed that he wasn’t doing as well at it recently. He wasn't entirely sure why that was, but he supposed it didn't really matter as long as Barry could keep it together long enough to avoid spooking Alyssa.

When Barry got back to the ship after speaking with Alyssa, everyone was waiting for him. He just shook his head, disappointment clear in his eyes.

"Alyssa doesn't know much about the situation. She would help, but she only got the information she gave us earlier on chance," Barry explained.

"You're certain of that?" Davenport asked.

"Yeah. Apparently, she'd been eavesdropping on some acquaintances after they mentioned Lucretia," Barry explained, and an odd, half-amused expression crossed his face. "Seems she had a bit of a crush."

Magnus let out a quick bark of laughter, and Lup giggled. Davenport smiled. It was good to see his friends feeling something other than anger.

"But other than that, she's got nothing. Gave me some names to look into- the acquaintances and a few others she suspects would be involved. Nothing concrete, though," Barry shrugged.

"It's somewhere to start," Davenport sighed. He'd hoped Barry's efforts would be more fruitful than that.

"So... that didn't get us much," Magnus said, shooting an apologetic look at Barry as he said it, before continuing in a hopeful tone, "Time to wreck shit?"

"Time to wreck shit," Davenport agreed, smiling at his crew in a way that was more a baring of teeth.

If they weren't going to be able to do this peacefully, then there was nothing left to hold them back from _forcing_ the return of their people.

-

Lucretia stared at the ceiling above her head, not entirely certain of how she had gotten here, and wishing that she wasn't. Everything felt- off and wrong. The world seemed to be spinning, and she was sure that if she had anything left in her stomach, it would soon be making a repeat appearance.

She'd felt off for a while now, but she hadn't realized that it was anything truly serious. She'd been lightheaded, but who wouldn't be when they kept losing blood so often? Their captors didn't seem to want them dead- seemed to value the potential immunity that they could provide too highly to do anything too dangerous to either of them.

She'd assumed that scientists like that would at least be aware of the amount of blood that a person could lose in a short time without getting sick, but it seemed that someone had made a miscalculation somewhere- but whether it was her mistake or theirs she couldn't be certain.

It seemed like it was probably theirs, from the vaguely frantic sounding voices around her. If they'd expected what they were doing to make her sick, then they wouldn't be worried about it, right?

She wanted to pay attention to what the scientists were saying, because it felt important. She ought to know these things about her own health, and there was no one else around that she could trust to handle it for her.

But she was so tired, and her head hurt, and she really just wanted to go back to sleep.

There was something poking her arm. She didn't like it; it reminded her too much of the blood drawing, and she wanted to scream at them that they couldn't take any _more_ \- that was what had gotten them into this situation to begin with!

But she couldn't seem to get her mouth to open and make words. Her mind felt foggy and far away, and she wasn't sure that she even remembered the right words to use in the first place.

She felt her eyes drifting shut again, and she was half-afraid of her inability to fight back against her exhaustion and half-relieved to get out of this horrible moment. Nothing felt real- and at the same time, everything felt far too real, and horribly wrong.

It would be better when she woke up again, she was sure. There wasn't much worse it could get, so it had to be.

She hoped she wasn't dying. Waking up after reforming would certainly feel better, but she didn't want to leave yet. She didn't want to leave Taako alone. She didn't want to leave her family without her for the next several months- the cycle hadn't been very long yet. They would be sad.

She wasn't sure she had much choice in the matter though. She was going under, and she could only hope that she'd wake up sooner rather than later.


End file.
